


Cosplay in Resin - The Losers

by nagasvoice



Category: The Losers (2010)
Genre: BJDs, Cosplay, Cougar's Hat, Cuddling & Snuggling, Dolls, F/F, F/M, How-to, Medusa - Freeform, Meta, Multi, Snakes, Team Cosplay in Resin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-06
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-12 00:35:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 6,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2089011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nagasvoice/pseuds/nagasvoice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>WARNING for those of you on limited access--IMAGE HEAVY!<br/>This isn't the final work of the Bang, which is in progress.  This is the report on the process of getting pictures done!<br/>Now it is Done!! YAY!<br/>See also the finished work here, thanks to lady_krysis!</p><p>http://archiveofourown.org/works/2176650</p><p>Also, kisahawklin made ICONS for us!<br/>Go see them here:<br/>http://archiveofourown.org/works/2212656</p><p>So many great ideas for the Bang, one person wanted to costume for it.  This cosplay idea inched itself into my head.  I have 1/3 scale jointed dolls.  Instead of humans, hey, I have a doll head that needs a scar-face make up *anyway*...  Imagine if, at your basic science fiction fantasy cosplay convention, the people in those fannish snapshots were being portrayed by 1/3 scale dolls.  Imagine if fans of the Losers were quoting favorite lines from the movie and explaining it to fans who were cosplaying for other movies?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Last Bits First

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to kate for help getting things sorted out, to my Bang companions kisahawklin and lady_krysis for cheering me on and encouraging me when I was feeling pretty frustrated and out of time.  
> The problem was that I needed to do all this work anyway, with blank floating heads, and here I had a deadline and a decent excuse to change everything up and clean up and get organized and try new things. Yeah, that was the first week.  
> Since then...Ohhhhh no, not another learning experience!! (Run in circles, scream and shout...)  
> Cleaning up the body intended for Aisha caused a delay of at least a month. Of course it was her fault. This is Aisha, right?  
> But I learned a lot working on it, first time trying all the different Dremel heads, etc. trying things out. All of the rest has likewise been experimental, such as learning how to make rigid wig caps and gluing on curly wool locks and using the new cell phone camera to record progress and methods and get it to post on Flickr, etc. You'd be surprised how useful all of those Pinterest makeup process pictures turn out to be.
> 
> I'll explain by starting with the goodies you get at the *end* of the process, show you the pretty results.  
> In other chapters I'll go back in time to discuss how I worked on heavy mods such as changing Aisha's body. Right now, let's talk about painting the heads.
> 
> ETA: Chapters 5 through 10 are a silly exposition on how things happened at the convention, if you can imagine this happening around and under the comic panels by lady_krysis (all honor to her name, bowing in her direction!)

This is a ball-jointed doll made of polyurethane resin and elastic string and artwork.   This one is about 60 cm tall, or one-third normal human scale.   

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638998657)

She has a regular existence playing a red-headed Aussie Librarian named Emma, but that's a story for another day.  Here, she's cosplaying at this fantasy convention as Natasha Romanov from the Avengers.

Wait, WRONG FANDOM!

Patience, grasshopper... Ball-jointed dolls are basically shaped beads strung on heavy elastic string. To work on them, you unknot the string (carefully) and do things like paint and carve and sand and then you restring them. Carefully. So you don't get your fingers pinched and string breaking and parts flying around the room.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14646277508)

This one was modified (modded) by its prior owner to play a cat-person from the movie Avatar. I'm not doing that because I don't have a head modded into a cat-face that would do a halfway decent job of it. So, not a cat-person.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14646294598)

STILL the wrong fandom!!

Bear with me here. What I've got is a spare elf-head. Honestly, it came out quite different than I expected.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14833824372)

In this alternate resin world, the erstwhile cat-person will instead be an elf person with wild purple hair and no particular media source, while our cosplayer Natasha knows cosplayers from the Losers, that's why she's babysitting all kinds of stringed instruments there in the cases.  And they're running late, of course. Jensen will happily explain the Losers to anybody who'll sit still for it. At any rate, you get the basic idea. 

More information on the doll styles and history here on wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball-jointed_doll

Our Natasha happens to be a hybrid doll made of a head from a company called Iplehouse and the body from another company called Elfdoll. This doesn't always work, and it's always an experiment. Her neck and shoulders got modded, sanded down, to make it possible. Some folks remark that her neck is too short as a result.

 [ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638888949)

Here's another one. He's a tall guy at 72 cm. He's a perfectly nice guy with a gray suit, so instantly everybody assigned him to play Max. I don't think he quite has the idea on how to be nasty in a Max sort of way. He's far more inclined to toss a snide remark at some academic meeting and call that behaving badly later on. This doll is another hybrid with body made by Buddydoll and head from DIM aka Doll in Mind. DIM made Minimee portrait heads, often of popular actors and musicians. The amusing part is that this head is a Minimee modelled after the actor John Barrowman of Torchwood, and comes out looking nothing like John B.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825178592)

Part of the difference between John and this Minimee John is the way his face was blushed and painted. That's called a faceup. You start off with a blank cast head and spray it with a sort of primer that gives some tooth to the smooth surface for catching marks in pastel and paint.

Here's blank heads. Oh yeah, and there's kitty ears to paint, and those bits of wriggly there are from Angelheim in a pretty unusual set, hard to find. Those are snakes are for applying onto a Medusa head by using paired neodymium magnets. These magnets are very small and very strong-- in other words, don't let kids play with them. (Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes?!) ETA: I painted the kitty ears, but didn't end up using them. Maybe later!

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14551844169)

I noted my progress set of faceup pix on Flickr, here.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/sets/72157646082090602/

I added notes on individual photos, as well as main notes on that set.

There's plenty of YouTube videos on how other folks do this (including professionals who charge for this service).

These are new faceups on heads I haven't painted before.  
The kitty ears from Dollmore and snakes for a Medusa head from Angelheim use little paired magnets to hold them on. For that matter, the main doll head pieces are held together by magnets in a lot of cases too.

The process and the chemicals to put a faceup on polyurethane resin casts like these is different from that used for vinyl heads such as Tonners or Barbies. 

I first washed the heads with dish soap and then with rubbing alcohol to get all handprints and grease off, I spread things out and let them dry. I like to use enamel butcher pans to dry them and later to hold them for spraying. The pans are inert for paints, so artists like these pans, they're also great for extensive pallets of paints, just cover with plastic wrap to keep acrylics damp and usable. I wear dispsable gloves so I don't add more handprints later.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14613045319)

I coat the heads in a sealer before and after each major step. This sealer puts some tooth on otherwise smooth plastic so it can hold colors in pastel dust. Finer lines are painted on using varying sized makeup tools such as 1-mm size q-tip-like dabbers and makeup sponges. Seal between coats as needed, and then proceed to adding finer details with a paintbrush or sharpened watercolor pencils. 

In the case of this head, it's Iplehouse company sculpt called Bichun (seriously, that's the real name of it) I added a scar. You can carve into the resin for a permanent mod, but most of the time you don't need to go that far. I used heavy-body acrylic medium to create extra texture for the scarring on the face. No tint in it as yet, but I added some later. It's always a judgement call on how bright or faded to make a "scar" like this. ETA: I'm not not entirely convinced by the texture or color, and feel it should probably get redone.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14619448118)

The nice part is that, with the sealer done as the first coat, most faceups will clean off with Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner alternated with rubbing alcohol and soap. So you can wipe it and redo it if you're really not happy! 

Some of the paints and pastels are actually dyes and not opaque pigments, so those may stain a piece of plastic, such as alizarin crimsons and pinks.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14804598904)

The next stage is to apply eyelashes--tiny glue brushes are your friend here. I used clear school glue, white glue is typically used, washes right off. Also, clearly, I'm waaay too fond of acrylic interference colors and metallics.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14627500658)

After getting the right size and color of eyes, e voila!

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14627531140)

Now, that's clearly splashy, unrealistic, just for fun. Here's a sort of upscale take on Aisha. I gave her much longer lashes than you'd see in the comix riotgrrrl. I didn't have enough short eyelashes to cover all the guy eyelids!! 

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14628019327)

So that's my amateur take so far. What does a pro job look like? This is an Elfdoll head sculpt called "Wu." You can see this is much more controlled lines, less is more approach to design. I added the eyelashes to a company faceup and then cats'-eyes and began working on attaching magnets with gaffer's tape for all those snakes. Because less is never enough for me, apparently.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14628019517)

So that didn't take that long--maybe four marathon days to finish up the art on all those pieces. That and digging out clothes and shoes, that stuff is all at the end of the process. What TOOK SO LONG?  
Tune in for the next chapter.

Oh yeah. Spoiler alert.

Are you ready for it? 

Not sure how to give enough space here. 

REALLY really? 

Okay? 

Is this enough space? 

Guy on the left also has a professional faceup. That was done by Lynn, who earns second job income from doing this. Also, this is the big reason why our cosplay Cougar here is NOT wearing a beard or goatee. Not even a little one. Am I messing with a good thing? Of course not. [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14835121875)


	2. Cosplay on Resin - The Losers, Heavy Lifting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What took so long? Heavy modifications to a body that needed serious help, and got it.

So in Chapter One, I teased you with pix of the last part of the whole effort. Let's go back to the beginning.

There's a fascinating and detailed tutorial by Gribby Bullock on Deviant Art on how to design and actually make your own ball-jointed doll, from planning through creating properly-engineered joints, here. The link is part 1 of 5 parts. Further links available to lower left.

http://deskleaves.deviantart.com/art/Ball-jointed-doll-tutorial-part-1-303710466

Ball-jointed dolls are really a series of beads strung on heavy elastic strings--in this case, I use cord about 4 mm thick. My dolls tend toward to the more relaxed floppy side, which is better for long-term storage. Folks who want them to hold like a rock in photoshoots all the time want them strung much more tightly, which strains everything in the same way as strings for a musical instrument.

Almost immediately after signing up for the Losers Big Bang 2014 with an idea about cosplaying with dolls, I started sorting out what I would need to do first to fix Aisha's body.

I bought the Iplehouse Carina head during a sale in June 2011. In November 2011 the long-awaited order of the Nobility Doll custom group order for a tan girl body arrived. A couple of us sent in a part for the company to match resin colors to this Carina head, which they did nicely.

I have had the parts since 2011 and had never done the work needed, and this photoshoot deadline was going to be it. I was going to get this done, finally. I started on this part early, in May 2014, knowing it would take awhile. But I didn't realize how long! Also, I was going to learn to use a borrowed Dremel tool, which I hadn't had access to before this. It basically did all the string channel modifications (mods) you see here. For a good week, each night I would take my box of parts outside and run the Dremel shaving down and drilling and smoothing out until the battery was drained.

My notes on the photoset show this:  
:  
I ordered a tan doll body in a group custom order with Nobility Doll. We wanted an athletic girl body, a body builder's body, with careful sketches and photo reference of women body-builders and athletes. When my doll body arrived in 2011, I found it had issues posing. Some of the design failed to coordinate among parts correctly. A lot of folks didn't make much use of it for photoshoots and displays, not as it would have earned with good engineering on the posing. I gave it an Iplehouse head and dressed it, and haven't taken time to work on it until now. Other companies more recently have been producing doll bodies that hold poses and are capable of positions unimaginable at the beginning of the industry, things like joint locks have changed that much. Fortunately, after receiving this body, one of the expert modders on the major forum, Den of Angels, posted a tutorial with a great series of pictures on how to fix the problems, as a general lesson in identifying issues on any doll. Through studying those comments and pix, I was able to understand where some further problems were, and fix those also. As part of a Big Bang fiction exchange, now I want to use it in a doll photoshoot story. So I'm taking pix of the progress as I work on following advice from a Den of Angels modder, Sudianna Designs, who fixed her doll, gave directions and took clear, careful pix of what she did--thanks goodness, because I don't know that I would have sorted out the issues nearly so easily. One of the simplest ones? Carve out the jutting edge that locks the thighs in place. It was harder to drill a new slot to hold the thigh strings when it's sitting down. Also harder to sink the elbow nut deeper into the socket on the forearm, so as to make the reshaped elbow lock engage better. A lot of these pix in early stages were taken inside their plastic bags to avoid spreading resin dust all over. Wet sanding went down to 2000 grit and then rouge polishing powder. Washing off oils from the rouge went back to a slightly more gray, powdery look. After all that work, I was absurdly pleased to string her together and find she could stand on her own. That said, I strung her pretty tight a month ago, and she's already loosened up and needs retightening again!

Flickr set here.  
https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/sets/72157644611536877/

I started off by putting the head away safely and recording how the body was strung to begin with. I wanted to know what it was intended to be. Stringing is partly enforced by the doll's joint design, and partly a matter of personal preference. Usually you can have all four limbs assembled on the same single loop of heavy elastic, or you can make four separate loops, or two loops. Four loops sounds appealing at the beginning, until you get to deciding where the knots will be. Cross-stringing the arms with the knot in the chest is hard to tighten properly and even harder to untie.

I should explain that this doll's bottom and hip structure is pretty unusual, and designed for display in skimpy body-building outfits. However, the engineering wasn't smooth enough. Some of the hip problems involved misalignment of stringing holes in different positions. Others involved blurry joint locks that weren't distinct enough to hold sliding parts firmly in place. I deepened the cuts around these locking ledges inside the hips and knees. 

 In addition, the arms were floppy because the subtle curves of parts around the elbow were not interacting enough to lock the outstretched limbs. Fixing this required deepening the sockets around the peanut part at the point of the elbow and cutting down the edges of both parts to make them into a locking s-curve instead of a floppy c-shaped joint, per the tutorial (thank goodness for the help). Similarly, I had to deepen the socket for the knee ball and impose deeper angles on the ridges for the joint locks to make sure it would settle into place and lock there. [](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14328125736)

The hip and thigh jointing required extensive reshaping on the balls and socket, not just string channels. Here, you see the lower torso and the legs arranged for sitting up, with the deep dent/cut slashing across the top of the thighs as a lock on the hip socket edge to stabilize her sitting position. In addition, on all the parts the mold lines were jagged and in some cases dangerously sharp, so I ground those down. This created a different lighter set of marks, a common problem when modding tan-colored resin dolls. Some people will put up with the sharp edges rather than risk making huge scarlike marks instead.

I can't tell you how pleased I was when I did test-fitting and found she would sit and stand without any strings holding the parts under tension at all.  
But I couldn't put her back together yet. I was determined I was going to sand her down to one smooth, even tone, and I hoped I would be able to sand down to fine rouge levels smoothly enough that the grayish dusty bloom of particles caught in scratches would go away and I'd get the original tan color back. I got a range of small pieces of wet-dry paper from an e-Bay auto modding dealer. I pulled out a plastic shoe box, filled it halfway with water, and sanded everything wet to keep the dust under control. (Toxic dust, not just loading up particular matter in your lungs.) I couldn't sit outside for this because the light wasn't good enough. I went from 80 grit wet-dry sandpaper through 2500 grit, and then to rouge polishing powder in the kit of Dremel tools. It needed doing, but I really wish the mods haven't been necessary in the first place. While I improved on some features, I did lose some crispness on nice details of muscle definition in the sculpt, and the resin color darkened back to a medium grayish tan, but it never did go back entirely to what it was. So it's paler than the head.

This is about midway through making sure all the seam lines have been smoothed out.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14262786027)

Here's further along. I was fighting to sand down torso sides without losing some nice sculpting of the ribs and serratus muscles. Similarly, retaining information on the toes was hard when sanding the feet.

And this is where we got to with smoothness working all the way up to 2500 grit and then rouge powder.

Here's the legs where I called it done on the polishing. Getting to this stage took a month at least.

Tools for stringing.

Here we are with string supplies and ribbon already tied on the hands and feet. As noted above, I used the heaviest here, she's not a thin little thing. The ribbon loops are a little inside-trick allows you to pull out the string loop, put a keeper such as locking forceps to hang onto the string while you're busy, and take off the hands or feet to swap things around. Forceps can be cheap from various scientific supply or eBay or doll dealers.

Another very handy tool is a string-puller, a t-handled long wire with a loop at the end. Here I've strung the arm on the tool, put the string through the ribbon, tied the end of the elastic string in knot, and I'm going to pull the string through toward the shoulder.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14324042250)

So I have a loop of string holding the ribbon, which holds the hand under tension when I get all done.

I decided to go with the original stringing, two loops, one across the chest for the arms, the other made into an A-shape with the top being the knot at the head and the two legs being loops down to the feet.

Here, stringing the legs, the string is entering the hips.

There's some more pix on the Flickr album showing the body strung and held in test gestures to see how well she'll hold poses, but those have nekkid doll boobs and booty and you'll have to go over there to see that.

Here she is, sitting up dressed with her wig. Wigmaking comes in the next chapter. She still needs spikey hair sticks, her faceup, boots, and a top hat. That gets done in painting things in Chapter One.


	3. It's a Wild and Woolly Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's all Clay's fault. You just can't find a conventional doll wig that has Jeffrey Dean Morgan's hairline, his sideburns, or the selected gray curls, or just curls that short.

I knew what did look like it, though--my sister has taken up spinning, and she had seriously curly locks in just the right brown and mixed brown and lighter tints, from a couple of varieties of sheep with English names. They're springy and a little harsh for spinning and knitting purposes, but perfect for this.

It was time to sort through tutorials and and figure out which method was going to give me the correct shaping and not take too long to do. I already had a few facts in hand.

Yes, I could make a beautiful ventilated wig on lace foundation such as those used in the theater. There's patient, well-done YouTube videos on it. I even bought the tools for it about a year ago, they're sort of like mini-latch hooks for rugs. But it would be difficult to preserve the waves in those locks if you're pulling it all apart and knotting 1-3 hairs apiece. By then, after Aisha's body sanding taking so long, I didn't have another month to devote to learning that one.

Wefted hair gets sewn onto stretchy elastic wig caps for most commercial doll wigs. Most regular human wig wefts are too wide and stiff, and wefts are generally in straight artificial fibers. You can buy wefted natural fibers from folks who do things like carding wool from their own animals, but it's expensive. Making your own wefts is common for makers of custom doll wigs for historical dolls.

I spent a little bit of time several years ago trying to sew wefts of artificial hair. Commercially-made wefts are long straight lines of hanging hair that tend to be fairly stiff at the base, and best used for long straight hair that overlaps extensively. That means, not good for genuinely short men's styles. This is precisely why you can't find inexpensive commercial doll wigs in such haircuts, the best you can find is roughly Beatles-era shags.

Also, I found my attempts at sewn lines did not hold the slippery hair well enough to be functional. It would certainly work better with wool, which sticks together instead of sliding. However, the sewing machine really didn't like the slippery hair at all, and it would end in sadness if I got stubborn. So, noooo, let's not tick off the seamstresses in my household by borrowing one of their machines and promptly wrecking it. Not even using much more cooperative wool. Seamstresses have a multitude of sharp tools and great precision in their use-- hey, I'm just saying.

Also, these locks are not what I would call cooperative in the least. The movie Brave has the heroine Merida with the kind of hair we're talking about. The idea of wefting it...bleargh.

I settled on attempting a hard wig cap. This is where you cover the doll's head in plastic wrap to protect it from the glue, with rubber bands to outline the ears, and you shape something like nylon stockings or wigcap lace or papier mache over that. It creates a rigid shell. Once you've cut and shaped the rigid shell, you glue on individual locks of hair in arcs, starting from the base of the neck going upward, fanning up into the back of the sideburns, using a glue that stiffens fairly quickly.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639998131)

The first wig cap, created on an elven-style head, I debated about using practice fibers. I had in my doll crafting stash some similarly curly locks of the Teeswater breed of sheep which develops long twisty curly locks that troll doll makers adore. They get up to 9-11" long, which is pretty lengthy for this kind of thing. I fell in love with a batch of it dyed in fabulous turquoises, greens, and deep marine blues and purples. I determined I had enough of it to make mistakes with, so I could start with that, as it would be easier to just try gluing down generously long locks for the first attempt. Also, a very elf-style head with slanted eyes and long ears which would handle the fantasy hair just fine. My batch of blue/purple/black dyed Teeswater locks came from a roving/spinning supply person on Etsy. They were clean, orderly, tied up in ribbon, and very easy to separate. I did this one first, and followed with Clay's wing.

There are variations that show up in tutorials. I found several good well-detailed tutes on the doll forum Den of Angels, Deviant Art, and YouTube. I consulted their product testing of various glues and took their advice, and I found it worked rather well. You can choose how to shape and glue in tracts of hair for styling it later in--such as wrapping braids and pearls and massive Louis Quartorze towers--it can be pretty elaborate, and it's a commonly used for more elaborate historical wig styles. I's also useful for gluing tracts of hair that are very short. The drawback can be that it does form so specifically to a particular head that it won't fit very well on anything else, it's not so versatile going between dolls as the stretch wig cap styles are.

The process pix are in this Flickr set:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/sets/72157645271666228/

I had dried-out wet wipes, which I found out are sturdier than paper towels, and I rinsed the scent out of them, wrung them out, and applied them damp over saran wrap over the doll head.

Then I brushed on M. Graham acrylic Matte Medium (very old) and after it dried, brushed on Liquitex Extra Heavy Gel acrylic medium, as those are what I have. Folks in the tutorials I looked at were using Elmers Glue aka PVA for the wig cap, I wanted something flexible and waterproof. The Teeswater locks are not forgiving of regular combing and will need to be wetted to resume curled locks if they get frizzy. I'm not sure if the acrylic medium will become sticky on the inside, as some polyacrylic and acrylic mediums do when you set things on tables or shelves finished in it.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14621334426)

In my first wig cap experiment I just pleated and folded, I did not try to cut the paper shape on the head and ended up with lumps that needed sanding down. I did that between the two types of medium. In the second wig cap, I cut darts in the wet paper and glued together cut edges with dabs of leftover fabric glue, and let it dry out in shape a bit before I applied the first batch of acrylic medium.

Tutorials on DOA and deviantArt advised dampening the hair first, and it is helpful. I used a spray mister often used to discipline the cats. They also advise using Aleene's Super Fabric Adhesive, better than super glue or PVA for attaching the fiber to the rigid cap, and it is. Thicker-bodied, so it holds onto fibers better.

It surface-dried quickly enough I had to wait very little time between rows. I basically laid down a line of glue across the nape of the neck, anchored the top cut end of the lock in a curly circle or half-circle (much easier than straight fiber with a shorter anchoring) and then went back to the start and dabbed in wherever it looked like the anchor would come loose. Then I laid in another row of this glue across the top edges of the existing hair for the next row, plus a second row about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch higher to anchor the second row. This is closer than it probably absolutely needed to be, and made the wig extremely thick, aka Merida-style hair, but it's appropriate for this kind of fiber. When I got near the crown I stopped for a bit to let it dry and thought about hair part techniques in wigs.

At the front, I was afraid to use the convention approach of gluing more bulky hair on the inside so it covers the edge of the cap and gets combed over the front of the wig. Instead I used tight coils fastened a little down from the end, and let the tips hang loose. It was already thick enough and wild enough that having the glue spot flattened down in the middle of the lock, not at the end, wasn't even visible in most places.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14460050309)

I ended up filling in with no part and letting some of the curls up near the cut tips trail forward for bangs. Since the hair is dyed dark at the cut end, where the glue is pinning it down at the very front isn't terribly visible, just a hint of glue-surface shine that shouldn't be there. I may trim back the cap or I may glue in some tiny curls if needed.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14668507583)

So that's the test wig on the test head. This would become Princess Agapanthus, for shots of her in front of my tub of purple Agapanthus plants with flowers blooming just then in the same purple color. But what's she got to do with cosplaying the Losers? She's another costume person at the same convention, and she's clearly dangerous enough to be attractive to Clay. (Check out the vampire teeth and the full glitter makeup, Chapter One.)

I was very aware of how long things were taking. Time to get Clay's cosplay head to work wrapped up in plastic. You can almost see the panic there.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14461938790)

I didn't stop and take a lot of process pix of gluing in the hair, as it basically all got done in an afternoon. Also, I probably left the fibers too long when I was measuring from the curly tip to the spot where it was glued, as I was cutting them away and not just accepting them at natural length. It came out more Jim Morrison, or as Einstein, than Jefrrey Morgan! A tighter check on pictures of Morgan as Clay during this process might have helped.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14711549564)

I should explain that normally this particular doll wears a silvery gray wig with straight hair, it's made of wefts on a regular stretchy wig cap. The way his beard was painted was organized around the appearance of that wig. If he was wearing this darker Clay wig routinely, I'd want to redo his faceup and repaint his beard to be less gray.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14733790613)

If I was trying harder to make this resemble Clay (not not just an older guy roped into cosplaying as Clay for a weekend!) then I would redo the wig with much shorter fibers.

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14528373690)


	4. Leftover Bits into Furniture for Dolls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A whole bunch of leftover bits intrigued me into trying to put them together in a usable form. Funny part is, some of the bits that were the original inspiration ended up getting discarded from the project along the way.

I'd been working on making this bench anyway, and a request for pix of the Losers all together in one shot pushed me to complete it for use in this effort.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/15015973705)

Flickr making-it set of pix here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/sets/72157646419469580/

 

When we bought our new stove, it came in a box with molded cardboard rails to protect the corners. I kept these, eventually marked them (badly, as it turned out) sawed them into miter corners, and glued them together into stacked box-shapes with wood glue and some extra cardboard bracing where the miter cuts weren't right.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14764199960)

I sized it off a scrap piece of plywood left over from an a/c window fitting, and ended up not using the plywood as a seat for this after all. Some of the things I was going to do didn't work out, so I ended up with extra pieces and used cardboard toilet paper rolls as legs to make two more chairs.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14952645585)

 I filled in the miter corners with air-dry clay I'd picked up on sale, but found the cardboard wasn't a rigid enough support for the clay in all places, it kept cracking as I kept repairing it. The clay was also a livid orange which stains everything it touches.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14780446897)

I covered the cut ends by shaping the flat paper handles from brown paper sacks.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14929654226)

Used leftover bronze paint to spray paint the whole base.

 

My mom sewed a casing on scrap fabric and I sewed together scrap pieces of flat quilt batting into a pad, and then sewed doll-scale buttons into tufting on the top of the fabric through the batting.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14829353188)

Just laid them on top of two pieces of cardboard and then used stiff hemp string from jewelry making to tighten up the casing around the sandwich of batting, fabric, and cardboard.

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/15015608532)

Ways to improve this and make it easier: Use conventional shaped poly molding, cut the miters more accurately, use a sculpt material that's less brittle.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the rough convention cosplay shot sequences that didn't make it into the comic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This late addition is totally due to a nice comment by kisahawklin, one of our lifesaving Mods for the 2014 Bang!

"They're always late!"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822451851)

"Hey, traffic was worse than I counted on."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638888309)

"We ought to get dressed, we promised we'd be in hall costumes for dinner."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638888479)

"Guys, here's your instruments. You really want me to demonstrate, when you ask me 'Natasha who?' 

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638888949)

"It's a flintlock. The hall photos, are we done?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825176632)

"Thank you, although I do not know why my ass must be bad."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639002717)

"No, if I slouch any more I'll fall off this chair."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639003067)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More hall costume photos

"Hi, I'm Ivan. I mean, Max. Max from the 2010 movie, actually, more than the comics, because if I was doing the comics version I'd have to pretend to be twins. Oops, is that a spoiler? Sorry!"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825178592)

"So I'm playing a megalomaniac, as you do, but just the one."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823180274)

"Is this scowling enough? More?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639004067)

Later on, at the photo stand... "Where'd the cat come from?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822449851)

"The green Elf lady found her in the bushes and persuaded her to sit with me."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638913188)  


"You never pet anybody else like that!"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638843190)

"Not in public, no. That lacks dignity."

"I think I could stand it."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638891769)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile, outside, our cosplay Jensen and Roque are in character. Possibly too well in character, even.

"How awesome is this? Wifi outside the building, and better than we've got at the other hotel, and--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825546255)

"--I've got all the lines we need from the movie for the Masquerade--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638913708)

"--and lots of green elf bimbos running around in little bikini bras--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638843690)

"--oops--"  
[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14802541346)

"Yeah, no problem, ma'am. I'm working Security tomorrow, all of us read and signed the anti-harrassment policy, and I am enforcing it. Jake, shut up now."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822457191)

"Sorry, I really had no idea she could hear me-- "

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638845270)

"No excuses--you said it."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822457641)

"I mean, I may be sometimes, inside my head but--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822458871)

"But you know I'm not That Guy! I'm going to go tell her I apologize and-- well, if that doesn't make it worse, I mean--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825548165)

"Shut uuuup!"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14845391763)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exes, man.

"But I thought you had work, like always--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14845394293)

"Do you have any idea-- no, of course not."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823185854)

"Great Mother Kali, do as you will, obviously my karma is terrible and I have deserved your worst--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823185814)

"And don't tell me I'm getting my religions mixed up again!"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14802544076)

"Okay, I won't. Ooof."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822462201)

"Cats are easier."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825185032)

"Yeah. They are."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638919348)

"A lot."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825552375)

"Scratch less, too."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823187984)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, having heard from the guys, it's past time we got some sistah time.  
> You might see passionate conversations like this one about just about any topic in science or science fiction.  
> They could be talking about NASA funding arguments, or the search for the Higgs-Boson, or the latest rumors about the appointment of the head of a science agency, or... in this case? The Boris-Vallejo-style biases of the currently appointed Masquerade judges, actually.

"It'd be an improvement if they just set the theme for Boris Vallejo--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822464331)

"--at least then we might get totally awesome ax guys and horses and stuff, right?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14845396753)

"Now we got random elves, no known period, and all their eyes are bugging out."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638850980)

"Plus nineteen charisma, can't beat it. Have you seen her?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639009997)

"I know, right, has anybody else even got a chance at the Masquerade with these judges?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639010837)

"I tell you, I wasn't going in another Louie Quartorze thing with my tits hanging out--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822461951)

"--or some steampunk getup with gears sticking into my tush--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639013077)

"--or twerking in a green thong--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638899549)

"......."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825186912)

"--just so the group could pick up a third place or something--"

"Did you see that one year with the chewing gum costume?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823188294)

"Oh, like this one? Look, here's last year's winner--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638850450)

"Going now." 

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14802547396)

"What? Was it something I said?"

"Shut up, Jake. Not the time."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825188112)

"We must have coffee in the morning."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14802547546)

"Good night, time to make sure I can get up in the morning."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639013787)

"Was that totally shallow or what?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825186642)

"Shut up Jake..."


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brothers can be the absolute worst. And when they collude with an ex??

"It's a reproduction flintlock."  
[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825555075)

"I've got some events where our string quartet is in Colonial dress, we do a little skit--"  
[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825188562)

"Hey, bro, take a hint, here, he's not into history. He just wants to flirt with you."  
[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638900979)

"C'mon, bro, the guy doesn't want to hear about your shitty old blackpowder toys."  
[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639014507)

"Yeah, I told him you're married. You notice he's still flirting. And so are you."  
[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14802548796)

"It's all right, Jake, we can talk about it some other time."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823191254)

"No, please, I just need you to show me how you hold it properly."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638901639)

"Whoa, dude, what's with the hat-snatching?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638852870)

"So my brother can shift over and show you how to hold his gun."

"I'll just hold your hat. Go on."

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14845399753)

"No, I'm not going to snatch your pirate hat."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825556545)

"Your toy is leering at me."

"That's okay, so is your brother."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638923858)

"You can have the hat back now."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823192114)

"I bet you can't both wear hats."

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825557065)

"Challenge accepted!"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638853650)

"Have I got the angle right?"

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823192554)

"Brothers are the worst."

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14802550436)

"Oh hi, have you met Jake? Jake, this is my husband--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638854100)

"Mischief managed."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14845400913)

"Don't even try with me, dude, I saw you maneuver the whole thing just now, slicker than--"

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822468011)

"Ahh, c'mon, you know they both need the practice."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822468211)

"Practice? Why would they need--"

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825558365)

"My point, right?"

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638903969)

"Smile for the nice ladies. Yes, we're cosplaying the Losers, that's right."

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825558815)

"See, that's Cougar and Jensen, they're the OTP in our fandom--"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14835121875)

"Dude, you are seriously evol."

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14835126625)

"Jake, right? You look familiar."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823174634)

"Yessir, I work for one of the programming subcontractors for your firm."

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14639017657)

"Hey Jake, relaaaax. I got this for you. What you say next is, 'Let me assure you I understand that your husband and his brother are both built like Bruce Lee, I am certain they could unwind my head right off with either hand--"

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638926378)

"--and my thoughts are entirely pure. Especially right now.'"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822451451)

"I'm not sure anybody else's thoughts are."

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14823194344)

"Hey, was that great timing on the lights coming down or what?"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638926278)

"Perfect, dude, I owe you. Quiet!"

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14802533936)

"Hey, shhh, the elf lady is heading this way."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14825540125)

"Hey, that's Princess Purple Agapanthus to you. She's really nice, you shouldn't be whispering about her! She's really good on all the elapid snakes! Do you know how many people have no idea what they even are? I mean, c'mon, the cobra, the most famous snake in history--"

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14638908428)

"Yeah, actually. Dude, I had no idea your sister was a reptile nut. And, besides that-- Umm, who even hums stuff like that?"

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14648509018)

"Classical musicians, actually. So nice to see you again. Lovely solo last week."

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14822468971)

"I remember you said it took quite awhile to build your Medusa head, can I take a look?"

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14648396240)

"Snakes, why'd it have to be snakes..."

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/girdethsvoice/14835138995)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really not sure Princess Purple Agapanthus is cosplaying at all. She may be claiming she's some Elvish court noble, but it's not from any media source I know about. Also, she talks about that Medusa head as her sister. If Medusa was immortal... She says it only speaks Greek, and very bad illiterate Greek at that, which startles Classics professors and causes questions. That's only to be expected if you grew up running about a port and got sent to the temple by your parents to keep you out of trouble. Is that cosplay, exactly? Erm...

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Fan Comic] Swagger Like Us](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2176650) by [lady_krysis (saekhwa)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/saekhwa/pseuds/lady_krysis)
  * [Icons for Team Cosplay in Resin](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2212656) by [kisahawklin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kisahawklin/pseuds/kisahawklin)




End file.
